Texas Tech Athletic Director Kirby Hocutt revealed Wednesday the university in January reported secondary rules violations by the men’s basketball program to the NCAA and subsequently served sanctions for exceeding allowable practice hours.

Red Raiders coach Billy Gillispie was reprimanded at the time, and Hocutt said he made it clear he’d have “zero tolerance for further disregard for the rules.”

Published reports in the past week cited several Tech players accusing Gillispie of mistreatment and far exceeding NCAA practice-hour limits, putting the program in what Hocutt on Wednesday

termed “an unusual and unfortunate position.”

“If this investigation proves that there were further NCAA rules violations — and again, at this point in time everything has been alleged — then I’m going to be very disappointed and we will handle it accordingly,” Hocutt told the Avalanche-Journal.

Asked if Gillispie could be fired, Hocutt did not answer directly.

“We’ve got some serious issues on the table that we’re working through,” Hocutt said. “What the end result is, I don’t want to speculate. I can’t get ahead of myself here. We’ve got to take it day by day, step by step. We will get to the right place.”

Hocutt didn’t provide an exact timeline for a decision on Gillispie’s status, but he hinted the process could move quickly.

“We’re going to move as expeditiously as possible,” Hocutt said, “but I can’t speculate how long that’s going to be. ... “Practice starts officially approximately a month from now, so it is a time-sensitive manner that we will handle accordingly.”

Gillispie, in his first season as Tech head coach, led the Red Raiders to records of 8-23 overall and 1-17 in the Big 12 Conference.

Allegations that players met with Hocutt regarding concerns about Gillispie first surfaced Friday in a report by ESPN.com. Gillispie was hospitalized about 5 a.m. Friday with what he described to the A-J as symptoms that made him feel he was having a stroke or heart attack.

Asked to respond to reports of alleged mistreatment when reached on his cellphone the day he was admitted to the hospital, Gillispie said, “There will be an appropriate time to talk about that. Right now I’m trying to get better.”

Hocutt said he had been scheduled to meet with Gillispie at 8 a.m. Friday.

He said he since has tried to make daily visits to see Gillispie, who remains hospitalized at University Medical Center.

NCAA rules cap a player’s total commitment to basketball, in season, at 20 hours a week and four hours a day, including games. A CBSSports.com story cited unnamed Tech players who said the team routinely exceeded those limits, even practicing as many as eight hours one day in November.

Hocutt said the January report to the NCAA cited secondary violations on practice limits that occurred in two or three cases over a two-week period last fall. Hocutt said, as a general rule, such violations receive a two-for-one penalty: for example, a two-hour overage being punished by a four-hour reduction of subsequent practice time.

Tech has already served a self-imposed penalty of 12 hours and 20 minutes off countable practice time in conjunction with its self-reported secondary violations.

Hocutt and Gillispie were hired at Tech just weeks apart in March 2011 — Hocutt’s hiring was announced March 2, Gillispie’s March 20.

Asked if he believed he’d thoroughly researched Gillispie before the coach was hired, Hocutt said, “Absolutely. Would I ever have made that recommendation without going through a detailed process and talking to as many people as I could? I would not have done that.”

CBSSports.com on Tuesday night released a story with further allegations against Gillispie, including accounts of players being forced to practice while injured.

One player was forced to practice and run up and down stairs despite suffering from stress fractures in his legs, an unnamed source in the CBSSports.com story said. The report also alleged several instances in which Gillispie offered assistant coaching jobs but then failed to deliver.

Six players transferred from Tech — Jaron Nash, Kevin Wagner, DeShon Minnis, Javarez Willis, Terran Petteway and Cameron Forte — after last season, a portion of the 30 players, coaches and staff members who have left since Gillispie took the job 18 months ago, according to CBSSports.com.

Some of Tech’s current players met Hocutt sometime within the last two weeks to raise concerns over the way they had been treated by Gillispie. Hocutt declined to say what was discussed during that meeting.

In addition to the Gillispie situation, Tech has experienced some major blows to its roster. Wannah Bail, a highly touted incoming freshman out of Houston, returned home after the first semester of summer classes. (A CBSSports.com source said Bail left because he couldn’t deal with Gillispie.)

Additionally, the A-J learned Wednesday that incoming freshman Aaron Ross, a former top 100 recruit out of Arkansas, suffered a cruciate ligament tear during practice in recent weeks and will miss the upcoming season.

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How can intentially breaking the rules, practicing 9 hours when 4 is the MAX in a day, and going over weekly hours of practice be a secondary violation and not a primary? This is cheating and should have been dealt with as so months ago. Another good ole boy sweep under the rug black eye for my Red Raiders. Once the truth comes out from Gillespie himself I don't think Lubbock will have to worry about a Team Gillespie as his firing will be deserved.

I agree with you. Tech needs to move fast as the season is fast approaching. I had read/heard similar things about BG's past but he seemed to sweep it under the rug well till now. I feel for the players and employees involved.